Ikaroa Rāwhiti MP Cushla Tangaere-Manuel says female leadership in te ao Māori shows how Aotearoa can lead way in female empowerment.
It’s 131 years today since New Zealand became the first self-governing country to grant women the right to vote.
Ms Tangaere-Manuel says she’s inspired by wāhine like Tairāwhiti Contractors head Katareina Kaiwai, who last week was invested with her King’s Service Medal for services to women and the civil construction industry.
“There you go, a young wahine Māori who has just burst through any glass ceilings that we have perceived there were in her industry of roading. Again, it was something she just wanted to have, felt the desire to move back to Ngāti Porou and that was an industry that gave her a job, and now she’s thriving,” she says.
Ms Tangaere-Manuel says in her career she has seen the benefit of wahine in leadership and governance for the perspectives and the nurturing they can bring to their roles.
